All posts by eray

I had just finished dancing to like thirty seven choruses of Happy with some elderly Slavic, Ukrainian and Argentinian folks (who would’ve never gotten along if it hadn’t been for this song), when I popped onto this Afro Alchemist blog for a bit of light, cultural thought stimulation…

… and POW!! Kody’s railing my man Pharrell for merely attempting to help give our wonderful Black community some new refreshing space, new water to drink, new insight… new dynamic vision to operate from…

… a break away from the Gangster grills and booty slapping lyrics that we too often listen to with our kids. It’s obvious that this guy is on top of his game and sees a vision of how he can help move us all towards uplifting not only our own humanity, but also contribute to everyone else’s.

Now I know it’s hard to twerk and make that booty clap to Happy, but sometimes we have to try new things. Hell, I had just gotten through ordering like five different colored, fresh mountie hats! And I’m appalled that anyone would attempt to knock this cat down.

But it won’t work anyway. This cat’s frothiness is uncontainable; he’s sincere, he’s talented, he’s rich, he’s caring. he’s enchanting, he’s talented, he’s rich, he’s visionary (did I mention he’s rich and talented?). The guy is like Bugs Bunny meets Quincy Jones! Seriously, screw Kanye and let this guy into Disney studios right away. And I bet we’ll all, at the least, be momentarily emancipated and feeling GUUUD, just like when Frankie Beverly crooned it (though good ol’ Frankie also mentioned the Joy n Pain, Sunshine n Rain polarity balance). So I guess it was actually Bobby Mc Ferrin who sang, “Don’t Worry! Just Be… ” (there goes that “H” word). But Pharrell is here to tell us screw they galaxy reverberating institutional inequities out here and press play on the music – it’s a NEW DAY, damnit!!!

And I appreciate that to some extent, because even if we do have entrenched, systematic, institutional undermining going on everyday, sometimes I like to transcend all of that crap for at least a minute or two and come up on the side of joyful expression! I am that I AM… bitches!!!

In case you didn’t know, there is a book that was written (fairly recently) called Happy For No Reason.

It was written in 2008, by Marci Shimoff. And no, she doesn’t stay in my neighborhood. But I’m attempting to move a little closer to her mental neighborhood. Because in it, she talks about raising your “happiness set point” and happiness habits like 1) focusing on gratitude 2) don’t believe everything that you think 3) incline your mind towards joy 4) see the world as your family, and 5) trust that it’s a friendly universe

Now, for instance, if your country is being bombarded everyday by all sorts of lethal, military industrial complex distributed weaponry, or you are starving to the point of your rib cage being exposed, you might find some of these focus habits a tad bit challenging. Well, that’s understandable. You probably can offer a book, or two, for Marci and the rest of us to read.

But many of us are not really in that dire of a situation. So then it doesn’t change the task before us. How can we transform this Game of Life, moment by moment, first as an expression of our innermost authentic spiritual essence? And then secondly, yet simultaneously, how can we work through the transformative, step by step, everyday encounter with Life while such incredible, systematically entrenched, backwardness, inequity and dysfunction is taking place all about us?

Pharrell told Oprah, “My colleague suggested I read The Alchemist, and it changed my whole life!! Because I realized all the people that conspired to get me to this place.” He further added that, “You have to be unafraid to dream. And then you have to be even more brave and gallant about blueprinting what you have envisaged.” The man’s creative capacities are not only unlimited, but honed by his self-development work to shape his magnificent journey. And through it shift some of what would be considered the Impossible, into the category of Possible.

His “New Black” definition, while unanchored in any real comprehension of culture, or communal involvement, still rang of passion and commitment to see a way, a possibility. What may have landed for many as a whimsy, bourgeois blind-sided, bohemian hip hop leprechaun-like, escape route from the hard core hammer of modern racism, is also the soul centered campaign of young visionary who perhaps could just use some further coat tail pullin’ and information upgrade… like most of us.

There has been a rash of response recently to the remarks Kobe Bryant made during an interview regarding his positioning on the Trayvon Martin case. During the interview with New Yorker writer Ben McGrath , when asked about his response to the Miami Heat’s solidarity pic wearing hoodies, he smugly stated…

“Smartly, I won’t react to something just because I’m suppose to, because I’m an African American. That argument doesn’t make any sense to me. So we want to advance as a society and as a culture, but, say, if something happens to an African American, we immediately come to his defense? Yet you want to talk about how far we have progressed as a society. Then you don’t jump to somebody’s defense just because they’e African American. You sit and you listen to the facts just like you would in another other situation, right? So I won’t assert myself. “

For a second, it seemed he was making a sensible point about reviewing the information and gathering the facts before getting caught up and leaping into an ill-founded solidarity stance. Nothing problematic about that; good advice. As a matter of fact, not just African Americans, but all people need to be re-presenced periodically to that insidious compulsion to tag in with the group think out of an unconsciousness need for a moment of belonging, validation and excitement. Critical consciousness often illudes many of us because we are not oriented to truly pause, think and evaluate for ourselves. So we just end up adding to the confusion when important issues really need our authentic reflection, response and contribution. So I say go Kobe, as far as that intent.

But then it clumsily wove into remarks which exposed the usual, unfortunate state of oblivion that too many African Americans fall prey to due to a total lack of understanding about the still deeply entrenched reality of institutionalized racism…

“So we want to advance as a society and as a culture, but, say, if something happens to an African American, we immediately come to his defense? Yet you want to talk about how far we have progressed as a society.” K. Bryant

That’s where the viral response kicked up heavy. Black folks weren’t tryin’ to hear it go too stupid from there, so they responded.

So let’s really take that apart and take a look at that with the discerning monocle. First, “we want to advance as a society and as a culture, but say, if something happens to an African American, we immediately come to his defense?” Well that’s almost an attempt at saying something very profound, except it’s totally self-contradictory.

He’s attempting to imply that advancing means we need to become “colorblind,” and “gender blind,” as he identifies himself.

Unfortunately, it happens to us all of the time. Some Negro will inevitably be attempting to “take the high road,” and transcend race under the auspice of “if we can all just push the suspend button on the race consciousness, it will all go away and racism will be instantly remedied… just like that!!” Obviously, from that perspective, the rest of us seem begrudging, bitter and hopelessly stuck in senseless cycles of enmity and disconnect. I’ve seen this scenario close up, even from loved ones. Folks really do want to be over it; the utter backwardness, diabolical design and unconscionable pain of racism.

But it doesn’t quite work that way Mr Bryant. It’s not as easy as it is for you to sink a forty foot jumper over a scrappy double team and claim yet another triumph to your history making tally.

Actually, the jumpers ain’t goin down like they use to either… or even the jump for that matter. But that’s another story.

The fact is black people, African Americans, Nubians, Asiatics, descendants from Akebulan and all the other designations to be considered (some of you won’t know what the hell that was about, but don’t worry – lol!), will never alter the entrenched fortress of institutionalized racism until 1) we understand what actually constitutes it, and then 2) make that information clear to all human groups that will support whatever forms of mobilization against it (so there’s much less confusion), as well as 3) making it clear to those who won’t support mobilization against it (dismantling, eradication, etc.), so that they know the fog of confusion and misinformation about it is losing it’s effect.

And what constitutes institutionalized racism is not just the ideology of racism (thought forms of superiority), but the institutional arrangement itself which ensures the domination and continued implementation of policies which cycle the dominant group right within their power position.

Negros just haven’t been taught what racism actually is, let alone the general population. Knowledge about the nature of such a system would be counter to it’s existence.

No, we need very intelligent people to be totally confused about for it to work. And like it or not, Kobe is a very intelligent person. So are so many of us.

But intelligent people are susceptible to, and succumb often to believing that they know more than they actually know. This is because they are so familiar with their own sharpness and intelligence (I should say we, because I’m right in that group too in the general sense).

But racism is not George Zimmerman hating Trayvon, or even viewing him as a “nigger.” It is the institutional system that has an entrench value system and code of enforcement that holds the life of Trayvon Martin as less valuable, and therefore less important, than that of a white kid. Therefore, the institutionally exacted penalty for killing a black kid walking home and committing no crime was zero! That’s racism folks!!! – the institutional system. Please work on getting that clear so we won’t go around the stupid-go-round too many unnecessary times with useless opinions and conjecture.

So all of this wanna be transcendent, enlightened, attempt at evolutionary brilliance and thought leadership by Kobe, and many others from our community, along with just the sheer desire to beam a smile and be one with everybody, ends up landing in the day to day matrix where entrenched institutional racism pervades, as anything but all that.

As if every time something “happens” to an African American, we alljump to their defense! Wait, Negro, are you crazy?? There are innumerable things that “happen” to black folks everyday; getting shot at, assaulted, robbed, discriminated against, unjustly penalized, harshly treated, called racially degrading terms; by whatever group, including often our own. Everybody knows this. And everybody also knows, we don’t have the time to respond, even as a fraction of a community, to 99.999% of it. So what is Kobe talking about?

Trayvon Martin’s situation wasn’t just another case of something “happening” to an African American. It was an appalling travesty of justice with the target being a black teenager that easily could have been anybody’s child, including Kobe’s, getting profiled, attacked and then murdered. It wasn’t some random “something happens to an African American, we immediately come to his defense.” Nobody came to my defense the other day when I was called “nigger.” I dealt with it in the way I dealt with it and kept it moving.

So, bottom line – we don’t need any more institutionally blind, cultural blind, and in effectsocio-politically blind, superheros who are really masquerading as enlightened, oh so insightfully transcendent, “color blind, gender blind,” superheros. Come on Kobe; you are a hero bro!!! Hustle up and catch up to the reality of this level of the game baby. We need you. We need each other on board. Blessed

As far as weather you are a Kendrick fan, or not, it’s really besides the point. There are obviously so many, justifiably, riding this cat’s hood ornate, razor sharp, supremely artistic, dual hemispherically blessed, poetic toolery, that I don’t think it’s necessary to go near that direction for the focus of this article. In fact, I don’t even qualify to write about that because I do not have the depth of grasp to articulate what the Real is on this dude from the perspective of true MC’in. You would need someone who is either a very gifted, veteran microphone master, or a knighted hip hop enthusiast, or both to attempt that task.

Instead, I want to address Mr Lamar in the context of him being a herald, an actual pragmatic prayer to the hip hop gods, answered. I should quickly follow that I use the reference of him being a prayer answered, referring to an unconscious activity taking place in our collective communal psyche. Nobody (that most of us would know) consciously prayed for a lyrical savant to be reborn from that old seething burial ground of the early, Bastard of the Party hatched, crack-sack turned magic corporate genie lamp, global gangsta rap mania mastermind group, NWA. But the fact is, whether you just kinda’ like rap music, loathe it or live and breathe it through your temples, we have all gotta experience it. It is the dominant musical art form of our era.

So, of course, we would unconsciously dream up an authentic, west coast, dysfunction ridden suburb fertilized, mission enriched, new hip hop voice to save us from all these other low Soul barometer pushers.

By “unconsciously dream up,” I mean the energy of our collective psychic field (as oblivious as we tend to be with it) called him forth, in the same way other timely human voices were called forth throughout various periods of our human evolution. We are in need, at the deep level of our communal Soul, for a voice that supports our own growth and evolution through this most complex and challenging period of it. Beyond a personal affinity for his witty stylization, many would easily concur with the statement, “Thank God for Kendrick.” And many hip hop devotees are obviously thankful to the hip hop gods (archetypes) for Kendrick. Hip hop needs it’s renewal and rejuvenation when the dynamism starts to die off to mediocrity.

But this is not to knock anyone else, even if I did slightly knock almost everyone else with the “low Soul barometer pushers” reference. It’s just that it is what it is, to be perhaps not so articulate… but then again… basically accurate. The process has to just has to cook up in one’s Self all at once in a given period. At first Kendrick was probably like any ol’ kid from the hood, cradling far fetched fantasies of being an accomplished rap gladiator with unshakable fame. But somewhere along the line, something happened in his evolutional process. He started to grow as if possessed by a daemon, while becoming one divinely blessed with a supreme gift, a talent of immense proportion. We all know it is said that, “to whom much is given, much is expected.”

And so you can’t just be a mere fledging MC, or a soda pop brand endorsement celebrating, umpteen bottles full a’ bub poppin, club rotation rocker, or a stranger to true, existentially wrenching, social struggle… or the most paltry candidate for ancestral communication and think that you will have any positively defining impact for a people as back against both the virtual and concrete walls as African Americans are.

We need, at this point, the whole kitchen sink (plumbing included), to use a familiar old cliche, as far as events and voices to come forth that create a jolting impact upon our state of affairs (in the same way a seemingly lifeless body can be shocked back into a vital state with the proper equipment). But we can’t seeanything if you don’t have a programmer make it dance on the screen with flashy graphics twitching on a blog page or touch screen, or at least have it whoosh through the twitterverse to a few hundred thousand awaiting palms. This is because we are submerged fully into the digital era without a coherent broadcast or voice addressing our state of affairs. And therefore, absent the voices, our community is more disconnected then ever; though paradoxically, we have more gadgetry to connect with than ever.

So when the still freshly ascended MC opens the song Hiii Powerwith, “Visions of Martin Luther staring at me/ Malcolm X put a hex on my future someone catch me/I’ve fallen victim to a revolutionary song/ The Serengeti’s clone back to put you backstabbers back on your spinal bone,” (if we’re paying attention) we will get it’s the realm of the ancestors choosing to speak through him. Why, or how, would a young Compton, street shake n baked brotha, barely out of his teens, have “visions of Martin Luther staring” at him???

“Malcolm X put a hex on my future, someone catch me,” Kendrick simultaneously pleads and leads. But most ain’t gonna catch him because our listening system is almost tone deaf to that depth of the vibration of Soul. Young Kendrick is like Gil Scott with an iPhone. They’re all hexing and yelling through him; Marcus Garvey, Fred Hampton… and oh yeah, the…

Stupid, for those of you who are hip hop era, culture code challenged, in this context means gone to point of being outrageously activated. Kendrick is psychically activating in an outrageous way, to say the very least. Such an outrageous level of activation is exactly what is called for in today’s state of affairs where even with a black president, black males still make up the majority prison population (yet are only 6% of the total population); where we still have the highest unemployment rates in every category, and are still glimpsing the downfall of campus after campus of our treasured HBCUs, while across town the trickle of our population at mainstream campuses gradually drops off further. A trend of outrageous activationism would be truly useful about now, a la Huey Newton meets Harriet Tubman meets Imhotep hangin’ out with Morpheus.

If but only for the execution of a small slice of his repertoire, which directs straight to the communal wounds from repression and institutionalized racism, the whole of Kendrick Lamar is prayer answered.

You see, here at Afro Alchemist, we deal with the transformational process. In Alchemy, turning the lead into gold requires a fundamental shifting not only at the molecular level, but even further at the sub-atomic level. It can even supersede form and mandate a shift at the Principlelevel. In all of these cases the quo must be bypassed (you may know it as the status quo). The core dynamics which create and constitute the status quo must be explored, deconstructed, re-registered within the greater context, then traversed beyond in Consciousness.

So we don’t really have much blog space for non-game changers in this context (other than a quick riff). And even though digital space is basically infinite, we still don’t have the space! Because bullshit is infinite too.

I don’t even know Brotha Kendrick personally (though I wouldn’t be mad if I could say he was a Nephew or some relation), but the plot is thick out here, to say the least, and few can even hit the damn target period, much less get near the bull’s eye. Yet all of these events and forces are culminating in this moment such that something radically special is peeking forth with the arrival of a true dynamic, artistic visionary. A grimy, Thelonius ghettatonic microphone monkster is in the cosmic oven, with the creative temp right at around 375 degrees.

We don’t quite know how this will all unfold, which way he will turn. Or, if perhaps it will be in multiple directions at once like his predecessor, the mighty warrior Pac. But Kendrick seems to have a very humble, zealous, calm, almost suspiciously wise smile about it all. And he’s figured out how to really fuck with that remote.

Well, er uh… first of all, I want to state that the tone of the “Ho, Sit Down!” piece could not only be described as direct, but could also be interpreted as somewhat inflammatory. I mean using phrases like “cash dummies,” and referring to her latest virtual wave shaking release as an “odious stank ho sing along,”… I mean, is that necessary? Obviously we can identify Mr. MF Jarrett as being somewhat disturbed about a mere pop music poster campaign, harmlessly intended to make some type of vague association with a recognized historical African American leadership symbol during the month of February (which happens to be what we have been allotted as “Black History Month,” while the dominant group politely takes the other eleven). I believe Ms. Minaj had already come out and stated in response to so much, somehow unanticipated backlash, that she didn’t even come up with it herself; it was just an idea sent to her by an associate (or something of this nature). I believe she apologized, owned up and recanted.

So I mean, obviously, there seems to be an issue that is still eating at Mr. Jarrett and several of our community members about what they view as the utter idiocy, the utter audacity, the utter utteracity of this prevalent element in young, Afrocentric, pop culture. To the point where Mr Jarrett has taken it upon himself, through this Afro Alchemist vehicle, to stand up and unequivocally state, “Ho sit down!!” Now… I don’t know that this would be the approach that say, recognized communal voices like Bill Cosby, Tom Joyner, Alfred Sharpton, T.D Jakes, Tavis Smiley or a Jesse Jackson would take. But on the other hand, they probably wouldn’t object to the request if she were to at the very least, momentarily comply… “Ho, sit down!!”

What I’m getting at, is that while Mr. MF Jarrett’s stance seems to be quite affrontive in nature, there are also quite a few among us (quiet as it shouldn’t be kept) who harbor the same basic sentiment. But they would never state it in such a fashion. However, this is all a matter of context and language… or thought coding. What occurs as shocking expression to some is often just matter of factness to others. I don’t think Mr. Jarrett meant “Ho, go and meditate,” “Ho, collect yourself,” or “Ho, do a little more research before you open your mouth expressing your thought process.” I think he just meant simply what he said: “Ho, sit down!”… plain and simple. Take a class on your glorious, magnificent history and culture, if you find yourself able to (with such an intensely busy schedule). And there you can easily find a seat to just quietly sit down and learn, absorb.

Or, perhaps he meant symbolically to sit down; as far as poppin’ off at the mouth with subject matter dealing with and requiring cultural and historical intelligence (obviously she has a high Hood drama IQ). That could have easily been where Kody was taking it. And perhaps, or should I say obviously, he felt it was time. I mean this is the thing that I do get, even if I may miss a lot of other stuff periodically; people can only tolerate so much stupidity. And then it just becomes outright super-ridiculous, ratchet-based retardation. Are people supposed to just inactively sit in a struggle class, cement ceiling cycled, prime time tabloid network flooded stupor waiting for Frederick Douglas, Marcus Garvey and ML King, Jr. to end up on “Lookin Ass NIgga” remix promos?? Hey yeah, what about throwing Jesus up there? Then changing the title from “Lookin Ass Nigga,” to “Seein’ Ass NIgga.” Oh, wait a minute. But now you’re offended?? Don’t tell me … that’s taking it TOO FAR!!??

Oh, I see how some of your thought codes and programs work. As long as it was Brotha Malcolm, you would’ve just asked them to turn the music down after 10:30 on a week night? Well, I think what Mr. Jarrett and others are suggesting is, it’s already gone waaay tooo far!

So, while I must admit I like me some sticky-icky-icky, big hydro-booty Nicki, and the ever slizzippin’ Weezy, along with my boy the ever butter-ballin’ cross-over, Toronto flaggin’, Oy Vey gangsta rap prince, Dreezy (I appreciate all of their creative genius), I also get that their skills extend only as far as a certain limited neurological and pop cultural domain. Once you get to another level of cultural, spiritual and communal consciousness, they don’t even show up on the radar. So… it is what it is. Somebody buy them a small case of the autobiography of Malcolm books, just so they can keep a couple with them on the tour bus and their private planes while they travel the world over, rockin’ millions in the crowds to their groundbreaking, mental liberation encoded, 2014 Black History month release – Lookin Ass NIggaaahhhh!!!!

We are now well underway in the year 2013, and I am unflinchingly, unequivocally stating that cosmology is a must! Now, many of you, due to your cosmopolitan culture conditioned listening, aren’t going to grasp but a faint hint of where I’m going with this kind of statement. But if I say, “Some cosmologists are musty,” you connect the dots right away. So…I’ll include that approach as well.

In fact, there are all manner of musty cosmologists about, who may find themselves so categorized due to various reasons, including but not limited to, they don’t give a damn. One might speculate their minds are elsewhere, pondering and studying complex thought systems that have arisen in various human cultures throughout time. So they don’t really distinguish the peculiar, pungent, human wafting we refer to as “must.” Whatever the case is, I don’t really have a position on the degree of must or non-must of any given cosmologist at any particular point in time. I’m hardly a “must basher.” Especially when it comes to individuals with what I consider to be such a substantive life focus.

I will say that if you were to run up on a musty cosmological enthusiast and it turns out to be that damn bad, that it actually causes you to gag that much, I would still recommend to you to put a clip on your nose, attempt to center yourself, and learn something. Because this is an extremely important discussion! It’s not a matter of whether I can convince you of this. The fact is, the less thought you put into exploring and grasping the nature of your very existence, the less the implications of not grasping much mean a damn thing. Oblivion and ignorance can get real cushiony, though simultaneously very limiting.

It downright takes a lot of attention (and a certain quality of attention at that), to discover and examine the nature of the fundamental thought model you operate from. In “A Guide For the Perplexed,” E.F. Schumacher puts it like this: “There is nothing more difficult than to become critically aware of the presuppositions of one’s own thought. Everything can be seen directly except the eye through which we see. Every thought can be scrutinized directly except the thought by which we scrutinize. A special effort, an effort of self-awareness is needed: that almost impossible feat of thought recoiling upon itself- almost impossible but not quite.” But not quite…

Cosmology is at the core of who you are. It’s the very worldview you operate from. You won’t even mention the word in an everyday conversation, yet the process lives fundamentally in the conversation anyway. Even more importantly, it determines your most basic strategy of interaction with the world and sense of being within it. The fact that it’s ended up missing as a common area of discussion means we’re not only oblivious, but hoblivious to the nature of our own hoblivion. So much has already changed and continues to rapidly change further about our fundamental understanding of ourselves and our world in today’s science. Yet common citizens, by and large, don’t have a clue about many of these changes. The fashionable topic of the month will never help you connect with it, unless someone or some popular show decides to make it a discussion point. But pop culture’s role is not really in the vain of deepening any grasp on human existence. It’s more about keeping you saturated, affixed and amused with superficiality and social drama. So the Afro Alchemist has to bring it on.

The dramatically radical discoveries of this era in realm of science (particularly in physics and neuroscience, i.e. Heisenberg’s principle, String Theory models, right-left hemisphere architecture, etc) about, and relating to, the fundamental nature of the world, corroborate ideas that were previously held for hundreds of years by westerners to be metaphysical fantasy, esoteric mish mash, and/or indigenous legend. But for the average person today the mandate of the outdated, scientific materialistic worldview still presses on. It’s quite a paradoxical situation. If most of us truly grasp the implications of what is now known today in physics, we would be looking at our “external” and “material” world much differently. We would be looking at the external world around us more from a holographic perspective than a model of abstract, quantitative linear fundamentalism. We would think, “Wait a minute. Something wild is goin on!” Because it’s known that the descriptive model of the world being made up of abstract, separate, externalized “part-icles” called atoms, or quarks, or whatever linguistic “box” that can be attached, is moreso an intellectual ritual science is involved in, along with the average human’s unconscious acceptance. It is known that those “particles” are actually glimpses of underlying wave patterns that are intricately and paradoxically woven into the totality of everything else. This occurs across dimensional lines, or which is referred to as non-locally. Now again, if we could significantly grasp the implications of this, we would be in a much greater state of wonder each passing day, pondering the spectacle and arabesque of dimensional intricacy that the Cosmos is, with great a intensity and fascination.

But we don’t know. Because it’s not profitable to have consumers be too vast in their grasp or exploration. Am I ringin’ the conspiracy triangle again: No! You slumber on your own. It’s not necessary to induce that with a lot of scheming folks. Let’s just be real. This is just to say that institutionally no one (or hardly anyone) is going to run around harping about cosmological breakthrough discoveries with a bunch of pop culture, prime time television attention ensnared, cosmopolitanites. It would be considered a WASTE OF TIME!

Yet the further we move into the future, with the vast changes that will take place, how we operate as a global high tech, neo-human culture will require a much different worldview. And being a walking “fossil” in the conversation is going to have to change. How can you interact with all of these high tech computer programs and watch all of these high tech films, with all the in depth, interdimensional concepts, and then when asked to review the very fundamental suppositions that make up your own day to day, dated worldviewing model, you shrug away? Here’s why – You may not admit it, but the truth is, that when it comes to your listening of your world, you’re waaay too jaded to hear about any possibly new mode of worldviewing. And then you continuously live and create life from a worldviewing system and idea of the Cosmos that you fundamentally have not, and refuse to examine in light of new information. As technology continues to evolve in chunks, your reality is becoming more and more virtual, digital and holographic. Until one day you will find yourself quite challenged with the growing notion that you are existing within some kind of strange holographic game.

So let’s go back over the most basic: Your cosmology is, once again, your idea, or model of the world. Depending on what perspective you are coming from (i.e. religious, cultural, scientific, etc), you will have a different storied account, or model. So we can refer to cosmologies as generally mytho-cosmologies. They are story/narrative based accounts which constitute varying models of the world. Even Science, particularly involving physics (which postures itself as the absolute determiner and voice of ultimate truth, or reality) provides models in the form of storied accounts. For instance, the “Big Bang Theory” is just that; a theory! It is a story about the origin of the Cosmos. No matter how exacting and authoritative scientists (physicists, astronomers, geologists, etc) may posture themselves, none of them were there or have the video of the actual event taking place. So though the theory has been well researched, articulated and explored, and has also proven useful, it is still categorically scientific myth.

I want to be clear so that you understand that this does not mean that it isn’t accurate, just because it is categorically a story. But who would be in the position to prove or disprove it without being there? Science, itself, would be acting in contraction to its own method to assert this to be beyond theory without proof. But that doesn’t mean some scientists won’t put on their lab coat with the PhD tattooed on their expression and posture in such a way to have you believe that they have an absolute grasp of things. That’s unfortunately just the institutionally conditioned, immature, pseudo-intellectual, subtle protocol many of them pick up from being in the ranks in the institutional status game of who’s who. It also comes from their unexamined shadowy need to have you respect the discipline of science overall as the ultimate religion.

Any true practitioner in their field, and lover of the art and quest of exploration and discovery will be markedly humbled and even more excited; somewhat like a child who knows that while much information has been gathered, that there is sooo much more to learn. He or she would easily point out where the body of modern science has much to learn before it can conclusively and thoroughly speak about what exactly, or absolutely is what in many areas.

As far as all non-western models, such as those from eastern traditions, or ancient indigenous groups, you have to investigate with a carefulness. You can’t go attempt to understand their model from the evaluative lens of our western culture. Look at how much stupidity was put out there from the misinterpretation of the Mayan calendar and all the silly conversation about the world ending in 2012. I’m sure the closest Mayan descendants living today were saying, “Look at these confused ass idiots! We never told them the world was going to end. We just said a certain cosmological period would end and another would begin and humans on the planet would deal with new themes of growth, modeling, advance, interconnection, decoding and awakening. But they weren’t prepared at a certain level to deal with that kind of information.”

If you would just light an incense (if necessary) and hear one of these musty ass cosmologists out next time, you will come to understand this. Or you can click on the Afro-Alchemist website and jump in the conversation. Peace